In an unprecedented development, one which is likely to have far reaching consequences, search team officials of the Enforcement Directorate were attacked, mercilessly assaulted and forced to flee for their lives while attempting to conduct a raid at the residence of Shahjahan Sheikh, a Trinamul Congress leader and close aide of an arrested minister in the Sandeshkhali area of North 24 Parganas on Friday morning.

The search operation was supposed to be conducted in connection with the ration distribution scam in Bengal which the central agency is currently probing. Nearly 30 per cent of the Public Distribution System (PDS) ration meant for beneficiaries in West Bengal was diverted to the open market, the Enforcement Directorate had earlier revealed.

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Sajahan is considered to be a close associate of state minister Jyotipriyo Mallick who was arrested in connection with the multi-crore ration distribution scam.

The attacks, presumed to have been carried out by the followers of the Trinamul leader, were also unleashed on the central armed forces personnel accompanying the raiding team of the central agency and members of the media covering the raid. While vehicles of the raiding convoy were ransacked by the miscreants and news TV cameras and broadcast equipment smashed, several journalists and support staff at the receiving end of the assault had to be admitted in a local hospital for medical attention.

ED officials, bleeding after head injuries and unable to board their badly damaged vehicles, were forced to flee the spot in an auto rickshaw to a location which remained unknown for hours to even their security officials who also had to escape and were last seen helplessly waiting in their ransacked vehicles on the Basanti Highway, several kilometers away from the ground zero of the attack.

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Subsequently, sources said, the injred ED offiials were admitted to Calcutta hopsital.

Early Friday morning, two teams from the Enforcement Directorate raided the homes of Trinamul leaders Shankar Addya and Shahjahan Sheikh, both close to the jailed Trinamul minister Jyotipriya Mullick in connection with the ration distribution scam. They also raided the residence of Addya's in-laws. The two were apparently not present at home when the ED teams carried out the raid.

The violence began when a team of ED officers reached the residence of Shahjahan around 8 AM and found his home locked and the collapsible gate before the main entrance pulled. Local people, including women, gathered in great numbers and started agitating asking why the raiding team did not provide them with prior intimation of its arrival. The situation quickly spiraled out of control when agency officials attempted to break open the locks after waiting for about an hour. Eyewitness accounts said the agitating mob, by then swollen to greater numbers and infiltrated by Trinamul-sheltered goons, began beating up the agency officials with kicks and blows and dragged them out of Shahjahan’s premises.

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The CRPF personnel in charge of providing security to the central officers found themselves greatly outnumbered by the mob and had to eventually back off.

The protestors then targeted the media personnel accompanying the search team and unleashed their fury on journalists and their crew, smashing their vehicles and coverage equipment. Entry points to the village were blocked off by laying wooden logs and tyres were set on fire. Vehicles trying to gain access to the area were being thoroughly searched and identities of their occupants were being reportedly checked by local Trinamul muscles.

"Horrific. The law and order situation in West Bengal is in shambles. ED officials and CRPF jawans brutally attacked in Sandeshkhali, North 24-Parganas while conducting raid at TMC leader Sheikh Shahjahan's house. I doubt that Rohingyas are present amongst the anti-national attackers," Suivendu Adhikari, leader of Opposition in the Bengal Assembly wrote on X (Formerly Twitter). "I urge Hon'ble union Home minister Amit Shah, Bengal Governor, Director ED and Director CRPF to take cognizance of this grave situation and take appropriate action to crush this anarchy." Adhikari demanded a probe by the NIA.

BJP spokesperson Shamik Bhattacharya alleged Shahjahan was involved in several illegal activities in the area. “He has been involved in sand and arms smuggling. He has looted relief materials from Bharat Sevashram Sangha and Ramakrishna Mission. Many people have been forced to flee Sandeshkhali and are living in Uttar Pradesh and Andhra,” said Bhattacharya, a former MLA from Basirhat South.

“Sandeshkhali lies in the Basirhat sub-division. He has given shelter to Rohingyas. Right now they are forcing women involved with self-help groups spread in the islands to put up roadblocks along the highway,” Bhattacharya alleged.

Junior union minister of Home and Cooch Behar MP Nisith Pramanik said the Centre was keeping a strict watch on the situation unfolding in Bengal.

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“Whenever a central investigating agency acting on the court’s instruction goes to probe at any place it is the responsibility of the state to provide security to the teams. In the case of West Bengal, we have repeatedly seen that impartial probe teams have come under attack. Friday’s incident in Sandeshkhali is not an attack on just a central probe team but the federal structure of the country. This is very unfortunate. The Centre has taken cognizance very seriously and would find out why this keeps happening in Bengal,” Pramanik said in a video statement.

“The Sandeshkhali incident is worrisome and unfortunate. The central agencies are carrying out raids and provoking people on the instructions of the BJP to humiliate Trinamul Congress,” said Kunal Ghosh, Trinamul spokesperson.

BJP Bengal leaders said Friday’s violence could not have happened without the tacit support from the Trinamul top brass. “Sheikh Shahjahan has the blessings of the Trinamul general secretary Abhishek Banerjee. Over the last few years he has become a law unto himself. The entire Sandeshkhali area runs on his instructions. Nobody could have the audacity to attack a central probe team unless they had the blessings from the top,” said a Bengal BJP functionary.